How to choose the right dress shape to match your body shape (and why we tell you not to.)

I think we’d all agree that there is nothing more spectacular than a bride looking effortlessly radiant, incredibly beautiful and like she hasn’t got a care in the world on her wedding day. I also think we’d all agree that when we’re getting married ourselves, that’s exactly how we would want to look!

What I don’t agree with is that a mesmerising bridal look can only be achieved by following rules on particular dress shapes, colours or fabric types only suiting particular body shapes, heights or skin colouring.

I believe it’s an inner confidence that makes a bride look radiant on her wedding day and THAT can only be achieved if, as a bride, you FEEL emotionally at ease and are able to think about nothing else except your happiness and excitement at enjoying your day to the absolutely most. It’s not achieved by wearing an outfit that followed the rules that you’d read or heard before you even stepped foot inside a wedding dress shop.

There are so many variables in a wedding dress, and indeed in people’s personalities, so I think surely it's impossible to categorize specific shapes of wedding dresses for specific shapes of people?

You may indeed have the perfect hour glass shape and those ‘rules’ may therefore dictate you must wear a super figure hugging fishtail dress, but surely that can only be true if you love showing off your hips and have the confident swagger to match it? If you hate your hips then it's no good at all.

A full ballgown doesn't have to be reserved for 6ft brides, if you're 5ft 1 inch and that's your dream dress AND most importantly, it makes you feel radiant, confident and ready to get married, then why should you wear anything else!?

If you have always dreamt of a sexy slinky satin dress why on earth should you not have exactly that?

You shouldn't end up crossing your fingers that you'll be confident enough to wear your dress on your day because that was the dress shape that you were told was right for your body shape. You should be nothing but excited about wearing your dress, from the moment you order it, right through until the wedding day. Don't be rushed, take your time, make decisions only when you are absolutely ready. Make sure it's right for you.

It would be easy for me to put you in a dress that’s a great shape for your figure but that doesn’t necessarily make it the right wedding dress for you as a person. If you’re not feeling confident then that will be written all over your face and in my opinion, it then stops being the right dress for your wedding day.

You'll know if it feels good, if it's feels natural and if it makes you feel the most confident you can possibly be. THAT will then by default, make you look good.

It’s not as logical as those rules make it appear, but the end result of finding your perfect outfit through an emotional, instinctive reaction, because it just FEELS right is SO much more spectacular than if you made the ‘logical’ decision.

So, at the risk of sounding like I'm adding even more rules, there’s just one rule I think brides should live by - Don't get caught up in the rules!

Absolutely I will be there to help guide you to the best shaping silhouette for you but my job is about picking up on the subtle signals you give off, signs that you're feeling confident or signs that you're feeling uneasy or self conscious. From there I'll show you alternative shapes to enhance the bits YOU want to enhance and hide the bits that YOU choose to hide. It’s a very personal choice. It's not my job (or indeed my right) to tell you what that personal style should be or what bits of your body you must show or hide.

My sole job is to give you confidence. And I love fulfilling that role and making my clients radiant on their wedding day. Actually if I’m honest, it’s less about your actual wedding day and more about the lead up to your wedding day. They’re so many memories created during the wedding planning, it’s my job to make sure those    memories are fantastic ones and, by making sure you choose a dress that truly makes you feel relaxed and confident, I can achieve that.

In amongst the stress of table plans and wedding logistics, your wedding dress should be the one spectacular constant, your comfort blanket of reassurance in amongst it all. That’s never going to happen if you’re in a dress that you feel you should wear or in a dress the rules told you to wear; there should be no doubts or worries or niggles, it has to be a whole different level of perfect.

That may sound like setting the bar high, but that’s exactly where it should be! AND if you choose your dress based on what instinctively gives you an inner confidence then it’ll not seem that high bar is so far out of reach – with the right dress, giving you the right feeling, it’ll just feel perfect.

I am indeed a bridal expert and yes, I will use my expertise to help find and create the perfect bridal look for you but my expertise is far more based in psychology and empathy than it is in anything else.

It's your personality that I'm using my expertise to match a dress to, NOT your body shape.

I may be a bridal styling expert but don’t forget that as the bride, so are you!